A hidden subterranean installation offers a view of the sky.

The remains of a 12th-century chapter house in Golden Gate Park.

The largest whiskey stash on the West Coast survived the 1906 fires--but not without heroic effort.

The only visible piece of San Francisco's most famous shipwreck.

Noble beasts perhaps, but not the Emperor's dogs.

A modern mechanical planetary system, part of a 10,000 year clock.

An art supply shop holds the secrets of this quiet neighborhood's raucous Barbary Coast past.

A brooding mansion of clinker brick stands out among the Victorian houses of Pacific Heights.

Not merely a museum – but a whirring powerhouse that offers a subterranean peek into the heart and soul of cable car operations.

Russian history in San Francisco.

Its buzzing collection honors vibrator history.

A mysterious painting of the self-declared Emperor of the United States watches over a local hof-brau.

A tiny theater hidden in an alley plays a constant stream of short silent films for anyone willing to peer through the peephole.

The studio built by fascists in the hopes of "reviving the film industry" with the occasional propaganda film opportunity thrown in.

A hospital where antique dolls are given new life.

Hidden beneath the famous St. Peter's Basilica is a veritable city of the dead that may hold the remains of St. Peter himself.

This Venice bookstore has resigned itself to constant flooding by keeping its books in bathtubs and boats.

This giant middle finger statue sends an unambiguous message to Italy's bankers.

The sounds of the world's largest fully functioning pipe organ dazzle shoppers at a Philadelphia Macy's.

Step inside the first house designed by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí, considered to be one of the first Art Nouveau buildings.